Please cite this article in press as: Mercenaro, L., et al., Sustainable management of an intercropped Mediterranean vineyard. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2014.04.005 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model AGEE-4700; No. of Pages 10 Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment xxx (2014) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment j ourna l h om epage: www.elsevier.com/locate/agee Sustainable management of an intercropped Mediterranean vineyard Luca Mercenaro a,∗ , Giovanni Nieddu a,1 , Pietro Pulina b,2 , Claudio Porqueddu c,3 a Department of Agriculture, University of Sassari, Via E. De Nicola, 107100 Sassari, Italy b Department of Science for Nature and Environmental Resources (DipNeT), University of Sassari, Via E. De Nicola 1, 07100 Sassari, Italy c National Research Council (CNR) – ISPAAM, Traversa La Crucca, 3 – Località Baldinca, 07100 Sassari, Italy a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 9 November 2013 Received in revised form 3 April 2014 Accepted 8 April 2014 Available online xxx Keywords: Vitis vinifera L. Cover crop Unsown species Cost effective Berry composition a b s t r a c t In the Mediterranean area, the use of cover crops in vineyards is still debated and the results of the few scientific experiments considering the influence of cover crop on grapevine are often conflicting. This work aims at providing useful indications on sustainable management for irrigated vineyards growing in a hot and dry region. A five year study was carried out in NW Sardinia, Italy, in a 8 year old vineyard cv. Carignano. To evaluate interactions between grapevine and cover crop as well as the economic impact of intercropping, soil tillage (T1) was compared with 4 inter-row treatments: natural covering (T2), complex commercial grass–legume mixture (T3), simple experimental grass–legume mixture (T4) and perennial grass Dactilys glomerata cv Currie (T5). During the five years of the experiment, the mixtures have ensured a higher level of soil covering compared to the other treatments. Moreover, the covering and the contribution to the dry matter yield for every component of the mixtures changed drastically with an increased presence of D. glomerata. Compared to the soil tillage, the cover crops reduce the vigor but does not affect yield. Regarding fruit quality, only the perennial grass influenced positively the amount of total anthocyanins. The cost analysis has not evidenced strong differences among treatments or limiting factors for growers related to the use of cover crop in vineyards. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The increasing environmental awareness widespread among global consumers and wine producing companies, has recently been transposed, in several national agriculture regulations and laws. In Italy and other EU countries, a new integrated cultivation set of rules will be mandatory from 2014; according to this new obligation the use of numerous current herbicides and pesticides will be forbidden. The promotion of the environmental sustaina- bility in viticulture requires increasing knowledge in all the issues related to vineyard ecosystems; as well as the need to reconsider management techniques for plants and their hosts, for soil and topsoil, paying an increasing attention to actions aiming at safe- guarding the structure and fertility of the cultivation sites. The management techniques of the field influence also the chemical and physical characteristics of the soil, other than water ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 079229336; fax: +39 0792293337. E-mail address: mercenaro@uniss.it (L. Mercenaro). 1 Tel.: +39 079229336; fax: +39 0792293337. 2 Tel.: +39 079229275; fax: +39 0792293376. 3 Tel.: +39 0792841604; fax: +39 0792841699. dynamics and nutrition cycle, determining an important effect on the output, both from the qualitative and the quantitative point of view. Among different soil management techniques with a low environmental impact, an important role is given to cover crops, not only for production purposes but also to ensure year-after-year fer- tility, including the physical, chemical and microbiological aspects (Nieddu et al., 2000; Castro et al., 2008). The cover cropping experiments have been proposed in Europe to tackle soil erosion due to surface runoff; in fact numerous studies were carried out in the past twenty years on the beneficial effects (Guerra and Steenwerth, 2012). Several goals may be reached through cover cropping. First of all, the nutrition cycle, as well as the soil structure and the microbiological soil characteristics are pos- itively influenced by cover cropping while the continuous tilling, especially in hot environments, promote an exaggerated mineral- ization of the organic substances in the soil (Morlat and Jacquet, 2003; King and Berry, 2005). Mediterranean viticulture is strongly affected by rainfall season- ality that puts the grapevine under a significant hydrological stress, especially during the critical phase of the ripening process (Celette et al., 2005; Koundouras et al., 1999; Mancosu, 2013). Despite cover cropping reduces weed development (Porqueddu et al., 2000), the hydrological competition between herbaceous plants and vine has http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2014.04.005 0167-8809/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.